Box Score (PDF) | Postgame Interview

ORONO, Maine – Senior Tori Alcorn (Lowell, Mass.) logged a game-best three hits, as the UMass Lowell softball team (18-19, 9-5 AE) dropped a 5-4, extra-innings heartbreaker at Maine (16-18, 10-1) in the teams' America East series finale on Thursday.
 
"I thought this was one heck of a game," said Head Coach Danielle Henderson. "When you get to extra innings and they're the home team, anything can happen. It just takes one pitch or one hit and the game can go their way. I thought both teams played hard and it was a real battle."
 
Freshman Courtney Cashman (Danvers, Mass) added two hits for the River Hawks in the contest with one RBI. Senior Alisha Welch (Langley, British Columbia) accounted for the squad's only other RBI on the day.
 
Sophomore pitcher Kaysee Talcik (Shelton, Conn.), who was called out of the bullpen in the second inning, totaled six strikeouts. She allowed just two hits prior to the extra inning of play.
 
The decision tilted in Maine's favor in the bottom of the eighth, as a two-out base hit from Meghan Royle extended the inning and brought up Kristen Niland, who lined a ball off first baseman Vanessa Cooper's (Pleasant Gap, Pa.) glove to secure the win in walk-off fashion.
 
Although T. Alcorn and Cashman each found the grass in center in the top of the first, Maine would break open the scoring in the bottom of the inning when a misthrow during a rundown allowed the Black Bears' lead runner to cross the dish.
 
The River Hawks quickly erased the difference in the second, using a base hit to left by T. Alcorn and an overthrow on that play to plate senior Emily O'Brien (Salem, N.H.) and knot the game at 1-1. However, Maine responded with a three-run rally on five hits in the home half of the inning of pull ahead, 4-1.
 
Both sides went three up and three down in the third before junior Kate Mims (West Chester, Pa.) ended the fourth with a strong throw down to second on a stolen base attempt. The River Hawks carried that momentum into the fifth, as redshirt-freshman Casey Harding (Cheshire, Conn.) and T. Alcorn got things started with back-to-back singles. Welch, who followed with a hard hit ball that that cleared the bases, would then slide past Maine's outstretched catcher on a sacrifice fly by Cashman, knotting the score at 4-4.
 
The teams combined for just two runners left on in their final at-bats, forcing the eighth frame.
 
Thursday's contest marked the 13th meeting between UMass Lowell and Maine in the sport of softball. The Black Bears now lead the all-time series, 10-3. The River Hawks will return to action this weekend when they welcome UMBC for their final America East series of the year on Saturday-Sunday, April 29-30.